kleph
29-03-2007, 03:31 AM
In the horrendous muddle of grunge that took over the indie airwaves after the rise of Nirvana, Pavement was a breath of fresh air. The avant-guard of nerd rock, they had a snotty sense of humor that meshed perfectly with their wear-it-on-your-sleeve amateurishness.
And their greatest achivement was the 1994 effort Crooked Rain Crooked Rain. A better collection of loopy free associative rock and roll would be tough to find anywhere but don't think that's all these boys from Stockton, California wwere up to.
Their don’t-give-a-shit attitude couldn’t hide a shining creativity that fueled this strange mess. If the marketed monster of grunge was tough bluster of heroin addicts recycling the best licks of Black Sabbath, then Pavement were the weed-smokin’ hippies who crashed the party after spending the whole afternoon listening to the Velvet Underground’s live records.
Crooked Rain Crooked Rain the kind of record that the tough kids at your school would see as a reasonable excuse to beat your wussy ass into the ground after gym class.
Pavement shared the eclectic sensibility of fellow faux-surfer potheads from the decade before, Camper Van Beethoven. Which, to be honest, is probably why I loved them the first time I ever heard them.
And, like CVB, their seeming lack of seriousness hid a rather ambitious artistic masterplan. Founder Scott Kannberg’s affinity for British alternative greats The Fall gave Pavement’s arrangements a more solid foundation than would seem apparent on first listen (enough that Mark E. Smith was less than happy with the similarity of the resulting output to his own).
What they did by accident is re-fuel the glory of DIY lo-fi. When this careened headlong into the alt-country scene begat by Springsteen’s Nebraska it gave us such incredible acts as Uncle Tupelo and, eventually, Wilco. Rarely has feedback been as endearing and effective than with Pavement and this was their best showcase for making it work in a relatively streamlined format.
They roam the musicial terrain freely, stealing gleefully from Buddy Holly, Dave Bruebeck and Captain Beefheart at will. Crooked Rain Crooked Rain is the kind of record that feels like it can go any direction at any time and, often, it surprises you with the way it actually decides to take.
It’s a wonderfully inspiring spontaneity that rarely finds it’s way out of a band’s live show and onto vinyl. The only comparable offering I know of is Camper Van Beethoven’s third album.
While Steven Malkmus seemed tried to hide a un-indie pop sensibility with his who-gives-a-fuck ad libbing, his real talents would reveal themselves at the most opportune times, like with the bands ‘hit’ “Cut Your Hair.” Which went on to be their breakthrough hit on MTV’s 120 Minutes and, eventually, the inevitable rallying cry for their selling out.
Pavement always took a bit to get under your skin but Crooked Rain Crooked Rain was a lot more accessible due to this. Their loopy persona often seemed a bit forced in some of their songs but it was worth putting up with because there was a lot more going on in the lyrics than you gave them credit for at first listen. When he insists "you're the kind of girl I like cuz you're empty and I'm empty" he’s being a hell of a lot more honest than most singers are willing to admit in what they sing aloud on a stage.
The band’s first outing Perfect Sound Forever and first album Slanted & Enchanted both ascended into indie rock immortality sparking feverent calls of sell out for everything the band did ever after. Despite that nonsense, I still found the ‘follow up’ Crooked Rain Crooked Rain the bands most enduring work.
How do you handle sell out when you never intended to make a buck off the game in the first place? And, moreover, when you have been heralded by the masses as the next great thing?
Crooked Rain Crooked Rain was an examination of rock and roll from the inside – even if Pavement were the outsiders of this weird world. As unusual as it may seem, the justly famous "Range Life" is their take on one of the most timeworn rock and roll archetypes – how hard it is to live on the road.
But Crooked Rain Crooked Rain works because Malkmus keeps the loopy auteur amateurism in line, insisting that Kannberg’s wonderful eccentricism is focused throughout. Malkmus would later take this road to the next logical destination on his self titled solo effort but the spontaneity that is so fresh here would seem a bit forced.
Most reviews of the album made great hay of the offhand skewering of Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots which, as accurate as it may have been, certainly are not where the story ends. If nothing else, Crooked Rain Crooked Rain is a self aware analysis of the band itself, and they know as well as anyone where the road winds up once you get your mug on MTV.
It’s tough to sustain such a fresh and innovative touch and the self-fullfilling prophecy of the band’s demise came to pass pretty much as they predicted. But, in it’s own weird way, that was part of the point as well. I look back on Crooked Rain Crooked Rain as a refreshing island of freewheeling fun in a time of way way too many bands taking themselves seriously. And, listening to it today, it still delivers the goods.
This essay also appears on my webpage, Klephblog (http://www.kleph.com/blog.php?v_blog_id=1).
And their greatest achivement was the 1994 effort Crooked Rain Crooked Rain. A better collection of loopy free associative rock and roll would be tough to find anywhere but don't think that's all these boys from Stockton, California wwere up to.
Their don’t-give-a-shit attitude couldn’t hide a shining creativity that fueled this strange mess. If the marketed monster of grunge was tough bluster of heroin addicts recycling the best licks of Black Sabbath, then Pavement were the weed-smokin’ hippies who crashed the party after spending the whole afternoon listening to the Velvet Underground’s live records.
Crooked Rain Crooked Rain the kind of record that the tough kids at your school would see as a reasonable excuse to beat your wussy ass into the ground after gym class.
Pavement shared the eclectic sensibility of fellow faux-surfer potheads from the decade before, Camper Van Beethoven. Which, to be honest, is probably why I loved them the first time I ever heard them.
And, like CVB, their seeming lack of seriousness hid a rather ambitious artistic masterplan. Founder Scott Kannberg’s affinity for British alternative greats The Fall gave Pavement’s arrangements a more solid foundation than would seem apparent on first listen (enough that Mark E. Smith was less than happy with the similarity of the resulting output to his own).
What they did by accident is re-fuel the glory of DIY lo-fi. When this careened headlong into the alt-country scene begat by Springsteen’s Nebraska it gave us such incredible acts as Uncle Tupelo and, eventually, Wilco. Rarely has feedback been as endearing and effective than with Pavement and this was their best showcase for making it work in a relatively streamlined format.
They roam the musicial terrain freely, stealing gleefully from Buddy Holly, Dave Bruebeck and Captain Beefheart at will. Crooked Rain Crooked Rain is the kind of record that feels like it can go any direction at any time and, often, it surprises you with the way it actually decides to take.
It’s a wonderfully inspiring spontaneity that rarely finds it’s way out of a band’s live show and onto vinyl. The only comparable offering I know of is Camper Van Beethoven’s third album.
While Steven Malkmus seemed tried to hide a un-indie pop sensibility with his who-gives-a-fuck ad libbing, his real talents would reveal themselves at the most opportune times, like with the bands ‘hit’ “Cut Your Hair.” Which went on to be their breakthrough hit on MTV’s 120 Minutes and, eventually, the inevitable rallying cry for their selling out.
Pavement always took a bit to get under your skin but Crooked Rain Crooked Rain was a lot more accessible due to this. Their loopy persona often seemed a bit forced in some of their songs but it was worth putting up with because there was a lot more going on in the lyrics than you gave them credit for at first listen. When he insists "you're the kind of girl I like cuz you're empty and I'm empty" he’s being a hell of a lot more honest than most singers are willing to admit in what they sing aloud on a stage.
The band’s first outing Perfect Sound Forever and first album Slanted & Enchanted both ascended into indie rock immortality sparking feverent calls of sell out for everything the band did ever after. Despite that nonsense, I still found the ‘follow up’ Crooked Rain Crooked Rain the bands most enduring work.
How do you handle sell out when you never intended to make a buck off the game in the first place? And, moreover, when you have been heralded by the masses as the next great thing?
Crooked Rain Crooked Rain was an examination of rock and roll from the inside – even if Pavement were the outsiders of this weird world. As unusual as it may seem, the justly famous "Range Life" is their take on one of the most timeworn rock and roll archetypes – how hard it is to live on the road.
But Crooked Rain Crooked Rain works because Malkmus keeps the loopy auteur amateurism in line, insisting that Kannberg’s wonderful eccentricism is focused throughout. Malkmus would later take this road to the next logical destination on his self titled solo effort but the spontaneity that is so fresh here would seem a bit forced.
Most reviews of the album made great hay of the offhand skewering of Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots which, as accurate as it may have been, certainly are not where the story ends. If nothing else, Crooked Rain Crooked Rain is a self aware analysis of the band itself, and they know as well as anyone where the road winds up once you get your mug on MTV.
It’s tough to sustain such a fresh and innovative touch and the self-fullfilling prophecy of the band’s demise came to pass pretty much as they predicted. But, in it’s own weird way, that was part of the point as well. I look back on Crooked Rain Crooked Rain as a refreshing island of freewheeling fun in a time of way way too many bands taking themselves seriously. And, listening to it today, it still delivers the goods.
This essay also appears on my webpage, Klephblog (http://www.kleph.com/blog.php?v_blog_id=1).